Pretty Wicked Things
by SakuXxAkatsukiXxItachi
Summary: When investigating a shortage of Nara supplies, Sakura is lost in the Nara woods when a storm hits. Pinned and lost, she is rescued by a mysterious shadow. She soon realizes her rescuer, Shikaren, is not who Sakura thinks she is. A question that needs answers as the Akatsuki pace at their boarders and Sakura is dragged into something she never thought possible. Femslash.


Sarkura Haruno took a deep breath. As always, with a tough day, she had to look ahead and realize that whatever came of this day, it would help in the next day. So she would take deep breaths. Clearing the mess her mind had invited the day before and wipe clean any lingering stains and doubts. If this was to work, she had to keep her mind clear, she had to concentrate, and most of all, she had to _believe_ that it would work.

Self confidence was the first step in a long line of learning what needed to be learned. Knowledge was power to a kunoichi and power eventually lead to survival in a world that even the Hokage didn't fully understand.

Today was inventory. Something many of the medical staff had been surprised had been assigned to Sakura, as she herself had identical surprised with as well. Barely an apprentice, Sakura had never done such a thing before—at least not in practice. The theory had been scratched into her brain as she slowly devoured the medical scrolls piling around her bed. Late night reading had it's own tolls. Hence the breathing.

Rapping her knuckles on the door after her breath, Sakura waiting patiently for the answer. As the impossible stretch of silence snapped her nerves, her knuckles gripped the clipboard tightly. Second guessing herself even when the numbers were correct after several times of calculations did nothing to urge her forward, the ever present self doubt was slowly eating its way into her day.

So another breath was in order.

"Sakura? Come in then."

The Hokage sounded gruff. Sleep clouded her voice—sleep or something more personal that had nothing to do with Sakura—nor did she ever had delusions of ever having the familiarity of asking.

Sakura hesitated—before she opened the door and walked with deliberate strides to the desk of the Hokage. Bowing lightly, she presented the clipboard. The silence came back into the room, only broken by defining strokes of a brush against aged scrolls as the Hokage scratched out orders and approved projects that kept Konoha in check.

"Are those the numbers from the clinic?"

"Yes, Lady Hokage!"

It was a mission in itself. Trusting her work enough to present it in such a way that the Hokage would believe her up to the tasks planned in the future. This—and everything that came with it—was not just a test. It was what would define her future.

The Hokage's assistant stepped forward to accept the clipboard since the Hokage obviously had her hands full at the moment. Sakura was unsure of what to do with herself when her shield was forced from her. Putting hands behind her back and staring at the Hokage seemed to be too much of a task—just because just a few feet from her, her work was being graded with downcast eyes.

"Haruno! What were your findings?" The Hokage asked her.

Jumping to attention Sakura's brain scrambled to remember her initial findings. She was slower, nervous, and not in her element. The Hokage's earthen eyes demanded _something_ from Sakura—anything that could fill the gaping holes slowly swimming in her brain.

"Ummm—yes! Uhh, I mean—" Sakura spluttered over words.

Stumbling to not make herself a complete fool, Sakura paused, then took a deep breath.

_You can do this_.

"Is this accurate?" The assistant stepped forward.

Her finger was placed on a particular number that Sakura had previously lurched over many times the previous night. No matter how much she had ran the numbers, they came out the way printed on the spread sheet. But it wasn't the math that was causing the trouble, it was the overall product that was called into question. So, not necessarily her actions, but the overlaying cause of this result.

"Y—yes! I believe that according to the stock numbers I was given, it is."

A save. Maybe. There was a concerned frown accompanying the encouraging nudge to Sakura's shoulder.

"Interesting. Lady Tsunade, if it is accurate, then the Nara must be contacted."

The clipboard was handed over to the Hokage, and she put down her brush to accept it. With the clattering a bamboo Sakura felt worry claw its way down her gut from up through her throat. Giving an audible swallow, Sakura kept her ridged posture as the Hokage read every detail.

Slowly taking apart every single thing Sakura wrote with scrutiny and complete dissociative attachment.

"This can't be right," the Hokage murmured.

"It should be—I mean, I did everything correct—" Sakura's voice came out in a squeak as she tried to stop the terrified shaking threatening to spill over her body.

The Hokage's sharp gaze stabbed her to stop her from saying or defending anything else.

"Calm down Haruno, it's not your numbers. Shizune, what could we do about this?"

Shizune snapped to attention. "Ma'am. It looks like most of these shipments came from the Nara, we could ask them about a possible slip in shipments."

The Hokage nodded. "Good, I want Shikamaru here—or the or any other Nara who could tell me what the hell is happening and why the shipments haven't been coming."

"Yes, ma'am!"

Shizune disappeared in a puff of smoke.

The Hokage took one last look at the clipboard before setting it aside. Rubbing a spot between her eyebrows and bridge of her nose, Tsunade sighed before opening her eyes and folding her fingers in front of her.

"Haruno, I have another assignment for you."

Sakura didn't have a moment to breath a sigh of relief before snapping to attention again. The tremors dissipated through her body, but in their last dying breathes, slow seeping anxiety replaced the cool relief coursing through her body. Heart in her throat, Sakura tried to remain calm.

"Of course—whatever you need Lady Hokage."

The Hokage nodded her approval. "This is what I like to hear. I need you to run by the hospital, ask them about the Nara shipments. There are two sides to every story, and both sides are prone to mistakes."

"Yes, Lady Hokage!"

* * *

With her qípáo slapping at her legs, Sakura raced from the Hokage tower to the hospital. A girl on a mission, she took the rooftops in order to conserve time and to not run into anyone who might have recognized her on the stretch—because she often would be recognized on her way to the hospital. A frequent route—because of her pink hair and the rumors of her being the Hokage's apprentice—she was quite popular.

It was all really unnecessary. She had just started out a few months prior—and with Naruto training with Lord Jiraiya, Sakura found her motivation stalled by unappealing thoughts. She worried. It was only natural, having been Naruto's teammate for a while—she tried to remind herself the Jiraiya was going to do wonderfully with the training of her hyperactive teammate—but in her mind he could only stay out of trouble when under her watchful eye.

An eye which had been blind to the real trouble. Something she never wanted to happen again. Sakura would never allow herself to hide behind the backs of her teammates. Never again. It was time for her to step out of the shadows and become stronger.

Strength came in many forms, and the Lady Hokage was the strongest person Sakura knew. When her declaration of wishing to have Tsunade as her teacher had been accepted, Sakura's brain and heart had jumpstarted. What a way to start out. What a way to have such a prize snatched up and taken. Never forgetting the day her Inner had taken what she needed, had given her the confidence to scream across the entire world: I've had enough.

And she had. Now she was under the apprenticeship of one of the Sanin. Just like Naruto. Just like—Sakura swallowed, taking a deep breath. She couldn't think about that right now, too many painful memories attached to just a name. A simple name that took the breath from her lungs and stripped her of almost all of her defenses.

It was weakness that would never allow her to ever bring him back to Konoha. She couldn't even think about his name, how would she ever face him and not crumble to the ground? It was why she wanted to become stronger. Strength came in lots of forms. She needed the strength to be able to do what she never thought possible, and right now, she was no closer to her goal as Naruto was.

A goal to be ratified as soon as she was able to do her song and dance before Naruto came back.

So Sakura continued on to the hospital. A hike would start with her first steps.

She entered through the ER. And it was chaos.

The place was crowded. Something about two mission teams dropping off the map.

"Where's Tanaka! I need Tanaka!" A patient screamed, half of his burned body in bandages.

A Hyūga teammate, who had his arm heavily bandaged, held down the burned man who kept on screaming for his teammate.

"Damn Akatsuki!" Another swore as he hunched in a chair half of his face was covered and the other had a deep wound a nurse was trying to stitch. His other teammate was rocking back and forth, hunched over and eyes unfocused.

Sakura passed a curtain where there was a violent struggle happening between one of the wounded and a nurse.

"You have to let me see her! Please! I have to know she's alright!"

"Sir, please, you have to sit down, your teammate is in surgery."

"No! I have to know she's alive."

"She's alive, sir, now please—your injuries were also severe, I need to treat you!"

"No! No! It—what are you doing? Let go of me! Ren! REN! REN—AHHH!"

It took two ninja just to restrain him back to bed.

More injured greeted Sakura as she kept on going through the ER. The only words she heard were screams and painful moans of "Akatsuki", a word that also had Sakura's limbs feeling like ice. But there was more.

She hadn't meant to see it, but passing a room, Sakura saw three ANBU, a fourth with his mask off, all stoned faced while the nurses treated their wounds. Their injuries were almost as severe as the other patience screaming in the ER, but they were silent as they were stitched up, not one of them had any sedative or pain relief IV hooked to their arms.

They were enduring the pain with silence.

Never flinching, just standing still and straight. The needle going in and out of flesh while the smell of healing chakra and heavy doses of ethanol stifled the room and rolled out into the hall. A nurse, stern face, glanced up when Sakura went to move on—more than a little displaced by the scene she had just saw—and shut the door when Sakura went down the hall.

Running to her goal, Sakura expertly found her way around the twisted labyrinth of the hospital. Something that took her weeks to accomplish, and more than enough guides to show her where things were. Deep in the bowels in the hospital, there is the supply room.

Raw supplies were delivered here. They were processed, put into their correct files and cataloged. Then the supplies were carted in varies forms to different portions of the hospital. If anyone would know

"Nagi!" She called when she was close enough to the room.

A spunky woman who ran the entire department and pulled many strings, Nagi would help her a lot, and maybe lead her to the answer she needed.

"Hey! Sakura!"

Muffled, but defiantly down here, Sakura entered the department. Musty smells, mainly of moth balls and other such smells filled Sakura's nose as she pushed open the door and quickly set it upon herself to move through the shelves full of plants, bugs, and floating frogs. Each serving the hospital in some way, most of them gave her the shivers, but nothing compared to what Lady Hokage would make her feel if she failed in this room.

"Where are you?" She called, thanking her small stature so she could squeeze through the thin crack between boxes.

"Over here, silly!"

Sakura looked to where the voice was originating from. Boxes. Great. Sighing, she continued to weave through the labyrinth of boxes until she touched something alive.

Screeching and jerking her body away from the wiggling mass, Sakura fell into a pile of boxes, smoke pillowing from them and their contents clattering hollowly along the floor.

"Careful!" Nagi scolded, pushing a blanket she had draped over her body off as she helped Sakura to her feet.

Dusting her body off, Sakura surveyed the damage. Most of the boxes were empty, but the rest seemed to contain—she gulped—animal bones.

"Don't worry 'bout those, it's not what you came here to do! What can I do you for Sakura?"

Nagi lead Sakura down the rows of boxes to a place they could sit comfortably. Where Sakura couldn't destroy anything and Nagi could sip on some of her cold tea. Nagi was a curious woman—a few years older than Sakura, she had started at the hospital very young.

Getting lost and heading to the supply room, Nagi had gone into the chaos and began to sort. Someone found her five days later, in complete content with the contents of the room completely sorted. No one seemed to know who she was or how she got there, she was allowed to stay just because whenever they would throw her out, Nagi would make her way back into the building.

Passed staff, Chunin, Jonin, and even ANBU guards. Sakura didn't know how she did it, but it allowed her a space of her own. Since then the hospital had almost tripled in efficiency, Nagi being one of the sole reasons why they had any sort of order in the plant and medicine.

"Sakura?" Nagi asked.

"Oh sorry Nagi, just lost in thought."

It made Sakura wonder who her real parents were. If she belonged to a clan or not. Nagi certainly didn't have any indicators of a clan in Konoha, with her white hair and red-purple eyes, but she had fit into the wedge nonetheless.

"About the ones upstairs?" Nagi asked, taking a small sip of her tea.

"Yeah, you heard about that all the way down here?" Sakura asked.

A thought to be held, how anyone could hear of such news when stuck deep in a place like this, how any news could travel through here with how deep they were in the underground of the hospital.

"Some of it. I knew who was responsible, because only two factions could do that to two fully armed units and an ANBU squad." Nagi frowned, a furrow forming between her brows and her unfocused eyes became clear as a summer sky.

"Huh?" Sakura asked.

"Oh nothing! What can I do you for? I already gave you all of our lists, was there something else you were here for? Or were you just down here to see me?"

The hopeful tone in the girl's voice had Sakura's gut twisting into knots. No, she didn't come down here just for the joys of Nagi's insane conversations. Not that they weren't interesting, Sakura could learn pages of medicine and cures just from Nagi alone, but the room really put all the fine hairs on her arm straight up.

"No, sorry. I'm here on business!" She apologized.

As per usual, Nagi laughed and didn't seem to be expecting any other answer. Curios, but right now it wasn't high on Sakura's list to find out why that was. Nagi was weird, intelligent but strange. Like a sickly green substance in a glass, you had the curiosity to take a sip, even though you knew you shouldn't.

"No apologies, what can I do for the Hokage's apprentice?"

"Umm, I needed a name, the name of someone," Sakura said.

Nagi sipped her cold tea, bangs shadowing a single eye as she tilted her head to the side.

"Hmmm? A name. Well that shouldn't be too hard, we'll start with the A's and work our way on from there."

Sakura put up her hands. "No, sorry. A Nara. I need the name of the Nara who usually drops off supplies for their Clan."

"Well that narrows it down. Let me check the itinerary!"

Finishing her tea with a flourish, Nagi sped to a pile of papers atop of a dusty box. Eyes frantically scanning while throwing the discarded papers over her shoulder, eventually forming a chaotic pile behind her before she got to the correct sheet.

"Here we go—ahhh, hmmm. Not good."

Sakura's heart soared at the good news only to plummet when Nagi made that noise. It wasn't the best noise in the world, Nagi seemed perplexed, and a small bit agitated.

"Now that's not right."

"What is it?" Sakura asked, standing up to go to Nagi's side.

The girl was agitated. A list holding all of the Nara's shipments was in her right hand while her left began to wave and gesture strange motions. The shipments hadn't been delivered for a few weeks, probably why the supplies was almost completely exhausted, but it wasn't that which had Nagi thrown for a loop. None of the shipments that had arrived had a name of the deliverer.

They had been cataloged, but the deliverer hadn't signed the form.

"They never signed! They always sign!"

The wail almost had Sakura covering her ears, instead she gave an uneasy smile and tried to calm Nagi down.

"It's alright, I got what I needed, do you mind if I take this sheet with me? It's what the Hokage wanted."

The sheet was shoved in her hands as Nagi frantically began to search all the papers for any sign of a Nara signature. A small fire burned into Sakura's chest, Shikamaru was going to have his ass chewed good for the trouble the Nara bestowed on pure laziness. If she caught a whiff that this was him, he'd be punched into the next decade.

"Thank you Nagi! I'll come by later, maybe with some fresh tea?" Sakura called, already leaning toward leaving the room while she still could.

"Yes, yes. Must find, I know there is one—where—where—I know you're here somewhere!"

Scrambling to the other side of the room, Nagi began to tear apart a box, spilling papers onto the floor and shuffling through them, frantically scrabbling for the Nara signature. Sakura slipped between two boxes and quickly weaved her way out of the room, the mad ravings of Nagi chasing her out the door and back through the hospital.

This time taking the main entrance, Sakura allowed herself to breathe while she read the sheet she had. It had the shipment records—and for the past month the Nara had not been sending their weekly shipments. The numbers couldn't be wrong, because every week, almost to the same hour, the shipments had arrived. By an anonymous deliverer.

It could be an error in the system. Or someone could be stealing the supplies before they got to the hospital. Sakura felt a stab of hopefulness, she had stumbled on something bigger than what it seemed.

_Someone's stealing medical supplies! Right under the Hokage's nose. Someone's going to pay!_

Pushing off the ground, Sakura hurried to the Hokage's office, the list clutched in her hand as she ran.

Half way there, a strong wind slammed into her side, throwing her out of her jump to skid along a narrow rooftop. Another violent gust brought Sakura to bring her arms to shield her face in body as her hair picked up the breeze and threatened to pull her from the room.

When the wind broke in its assault Sakura looked to the sky. Her eyes widened as they took in the dark clouds looming overhead. Lighting flashed in the sky as green leaves scattered the sky when the wind returned. A storm was in the making, a big one.

Gritting her teeth, Sakura continued on the roofs to the Hokage tower. The sooner she got this done, the sooner she could go home and hold up until the storm passed. She'd probably have cleanup duty in the morning, for those unfortunate souls who had been trapped by the storm, maybe be able to do some minor medical procedures. She had mastered the winged technique Lady Hokage had shown her before Naruto had left, not that it did her much good when it came to healing a broken leg, but it gave her something to look forward to.

Getting to the Hokage tower, Sakura allowed herself a breath and attempted to straighten her tangle mass of hair.

Breathing deeply through her nose, she marched up the stairs of the tower, the paper tightly clutched I her hands. She wondered what Shikamaru had to say for himself for this.

Skipping to the door, Sakura took a deep breath before she knocked on the door.

"Lady Hokage? I have the paper you asked for."

"Come in Sakura, we have a lot to discuss," The Hokage answered.


End file.
